Now and Back Then
by I.W.P-chan
Summary: The most obscure thing in the whole of Vongola is its history, especially the one about its early years. Secondo-reborn-as-Tsuna.


_Before I begin, I would like to give a big shout out to_ _ **insanescriptist**_ _whose reply to my ask on tumblr motivated me to actually type this fic, and it also inspired me in some bits and pieces like the hints around Xanxus. You can find the ask and the reply on my tumblr under the same name._

Summary: The most obscure thing in the whole of Vongola is its history, especially the one about its early years. Secondo-reborn-as-Tsuna.

 **WARNINGS: UNBETAED, OOC, LANGUAGE.**

 **Disclaimer:** **I don't own KHR.**

.

It all began when Tsuna was given the half Vongola Sky ring.

The memories came to him in his sleep; a mess of names, faces, places and feelings.

One name stood out the most:

 _Ricardo di Vongola_

It went on for days, and it confused him greatly.

And then the Varia came.

The sight of the flames in the hands of the one named Xanxus brought it all into sharp clarity and everything suddenly made _sense_.

That day, Tsuna silently broke down in the bathroom.

When he finally finished and went to his room to sleep, he half-expected Reborn to hit him with a Leon-mallet but Reborn didn't; shockingly enough, he let Tsuna go to bed without any comments about weaknesses, crying and being a Mafia boss, which Tsuna was grateful for.

As Tsuna lied in bed, his gaze fell on the half-ring in his hand-

 _(A box with the Vongola crest was the last thing his cousin gave him before leaving: a box that contained a half of each Vongola ring. A week later, he found an identical box in his bedroom; it contained the other halves of the Vongola rings. His cousin's Cloud always did whatever he wanted; and he was leaving, too.)_

-before he let his gaze wander towards Reborn; a person so much like the man he trusted to be his Adviser and CEDEF head _back then_.

With a humorless chuckle, he fell asleep.

.

Reborn wanted him to learn his _cousin's_ special technique; the Zero Point Breakthrough.

 _(The fire became ice, ice so cold it burned. He thought his cousin had gone soft; putting people in the special ice like putting misbehaving children in time-out. But then he saw the scars the technique caused, and snorted. It was a thing like this that reminded him that his cousin was ruthless when the occasion called for it.)_

Reborn wanted him to _use_ that technique in his fight against Xanxus; and the CEDEF boy was to help him train _(retrain; he just had to remind his body and flames how to do it. The steps to the Zero Point Breakthrough were practically burned into his memory. But they didn't know that.)_ so that he'd have an ace up his sleeve.

Tsuna wondered if Reborn knew; if the CEDEF boy- Basil- knew, if the man who called himself his _father_ knew.

He wondered if they saw the scars marking Xanxus' skin, if they recognized their origin.

Tsuna's memories from _back then_ helpfully gave him recollections of those scars, of their cause.

He wondered if Xanxus was going to do something that would make him put Xanxus in ice again.

It wasn't a question of whether he would be cruel enough to do it or not, but whether he would be given a reason to do it.

The Tsuna of the _now_ inherited- or, more accurately, kept- the resolve he had _back then_ and accepted it fully with all of its details.

.

The fight for the half Sun ring went as well as it could have been expected when it was between a sixteen-year old _(a child, part of him whispered)_ and a professional assassin with the fight tipped in the professional assassin's favor.

 _(Cheating, cheating._ _Scared, weren't they?_ _A part of him whispered plots and plans to pick apart these so-called Quality. He squished it down;_ _later_ _, he whispered back,_ _after the battles our flames will rage and burn them._ _)_

His Sun won. Tsuna was ridiculously happy and relieved that his Sun made it through.

 _(His bright Sun; running around the mansion, helping in the infirmary, trying to out-shout his cousin's Sun.)_

.

The fight for the half Lightning ring was a disaster waiting to happen. A five-year old child pitted against a professional assassin.

 _(Again. A young face and somber eyes that saw much-_ _ **too much**_ _\- and he'll be damned-_ _ **and the Varia were digging themselves a deeper grave.**_ _)_

The man who called himself Tsuna's _father_ was three mistakes away from being a dead man walking, and Tsuna was somewhat content to let the person he was _back then_ show his _father_ who was in charge.

His Storm within him wanted to _rage_ and he was never this close to exposing himself; just to make those arrogant _trashes_ taste his _Wrath_. But he reigned it in against all odds; he was _Sawada Tsunayoshi_ now not _Ricardo di Vongola_ , he could wait.

He still welcomed the bullet Reborn shot him with and interfered with the fight.

The rings weren't of much consequence to him. By losing the half Sky ring his side would be the one losing the half-rings; he refused to let his Elements endanger themselves because of an old man's whims. Let the Varia walk away victorious, let Xanxus be the Decimo candidate; the Varia would soon be going out in a blaze of glory. Unfortunately for the Varia, any blaze they had in mind wouldn't be the blaze Tsuna prepared to give them.

Tsuna was quite willing to end it for the rest of Vongola, too, if they tried to stick their noses in his and his Elements' business again.

It was such a _shame_ that Xanxus decided to give them a second chance.

.

Tsuna stared at the screens provided to watch the fight for the half Storm ring in disbelief.

 _(What was it with his Storms being suicidal?! He remembered eyes filled with pain and stubborn determination, ragged breaths, wet coughs and blood smearing his skin; the last words of his ridiculously devoted Storm._ _ **HarmonyandWrathandfireandburnburnitall-**_ _)_

The Storm within him _raged_ , and _he raged_.

It would be better to set his Storm straight before he decided that throwing his life away was perfectly within reason to… _please_ … him.

And that was Utterly Unacceptable.

He wasn't going to lose another Storm.

He wasn't going to _fail_ another Storm.

.

It was official, his Rains delighted in giving him heart attacks.

( _Move away from the edge or so help me God-_ _)_

 _(_ _Don't laugh it off, either!_ _)_

Tsuna bit down the hysterical laugh bubbling in his throat as his Rain snatched the half Rain ring.

.

His mist _(-s! Mists!)_ was _(_ _ **were**_ _)_ a curious case; two halves of a whole.

When Tsuna saw the girl, so much like Mukuro, he immediately looked for her counterpart, her other half.

He had two Mists, like _back then_.

.

When Tsuna's eyes locked with Mukuro's he knew.

Mukuro was like him.

Mukuro _was him._

Mukuro remembered.

 _(_ _My Mists._ _)_

 _(_ _What was his Mist even doing at Vendicare?_ _)_

.

His Cloud was ruthless and quick in his fight. Tsuna didn't think otherwise as that would have been an insult to his Cloud's skill.

But the Gola Mosca and what- or, rather, who- it contained was a shock.

It was in that moment that both Tsuna and Xanxus looked at each other and actually _saw._

"I won't let you succeed the Ninth."

 _(_ _How the mighty have fallen, cousin._ _)_

.

The fight between the both of them was terrifying. It was evidence to how far both of them were willing to go, how many underhanded methods they were willing to use.

Tsuna gave as good as he got: redirecting hits and flames towards each other, the poles holding the rings, and the opponent's Elements.

Tsuna didn't even hesitate to use Zero Point Breakthrough.

The two of them went at it until they exhausted each other; Tsuna was kneeling as he took in as much air as possible, and Xanxus frozen in ice.

.

When the ring rejected Xanxus, Tsuna felt as if the world flipped upside down.

The two of them didn't even _hear_ Squalo spill the secrets behind the Cradle Affair, as concentrated as they were on thinking about _why_ the ring really rejected Xanxus.

The two stared at each other; moments ago they were enemies, more than a century ago they were cousins as close to each other as brothers. Their Intuition sparked and flared in Harmony; so little Harmony but enough for them to know that they didn't completely lose what actually _mattered_ to them.

Bitter laughter spilled from Xanxus' lips as Tsuna stood, back straight and resolve burning in his eyes, and looked straight at the two pink haired tanned women standing on the edges.

"Cervello."

His whisper was laced with promises _(-threats.)_ that the two women heeded and left.

.

When they were sent to the future, Tsuna wondered how, why, and when did things go to hell in hand basket.

His TYL!self was, apparently, shot in the heart after having ruled Vongola for eight years.

 _(Again.)_

He looked around the base and wondered if he ever told anyone the truth about himself, sometime in the future.

.

Undergoing the Boss Trial as Vongola Decimo was quite different than undergoing it as Vongola Secondo. First, there were more bosses in the ring now. And second, the whole 'resolution-to-inherit-the-Vongola's-sins' was new. He didn't remember anything about that part from his first Trial. Like hell he was inheriting the sins of the other bosses. And if they were to try and push it, he wasn't averse to letting the Storm within him _rage and burn everything Vongola to the ground._

He told the other bosses as much; and if he heard a peep of protest, he was going to do what his future self did and destroy the rings.

The shadow of what his cousin used to be in a previous life smiled.

 _(Of course he smiled; he was always a rebel.)_

"Your resolution has been unequivocally accepted."

 _(E'la nostra ora incisa sull'anello)_

"To flourish, or to perish. It's up to you now. Vongola Decimo."

Tsuna looked around him, the other bosses were smiling; his past self's smile was more a vicious bearing of his teeth and Tsuna resisted the urge to 'smile' the same way.

"I have been waiting for you. Now, it's time for you to inherit the proof of the Vongola."

It was time for him to leave; he wasn't going to make his Cloud wait longer than he had to.

.

Since returning from the future, Tsuna had taken to observing the Vongola Sky ring. _Back then_ he never gave much thought to the Vongola rings' original forms; the rings were sealed after Elena's death, and his cousin and his cousin's Elements wore the rings in their sealed state in the few years they stayed after. Unsealing the rings had never occurred to him; which was probably for the better, given how things went with the Vongola after his passing.

Speaking of how things went after his passing: there were so many things that went wrong with the Vongola; when did it start to stray from its purpose of protecting the weak to exploiting them?

He couldn't help but think that there was a piece missing in the grand scheme of things.

.

Tsuna took in the red hair and red eyes with unique compass-like marking and resisted the urge to cheer. He was glad he could work with the Shimon again. Speaking of which, he really wanted to know what happened to make the Shimon disappear so suddenly _back then._ He knew it had something to do with Spade-

 _(One of his greatest regrets was never having the chance to burn the bastard to ashes.)_

-but he never knew what exactly.

.

Tsuna was completely blindsided by the Shimon's attack at the Inheritance Ceremony.

It took him a few minutes to be able to think again.

First, _what the actual_ _ **fuck**_ _was Vongola doing with_ _ **Cozart's fucking blood?!**_

Second, _when did Giotto fucking_ _ **betray Cozart?!**_

Third… actually, he was too angry to think of something other than fire _fire_ _ **fireburnittoashes**_ as he scanned his Elements who were missing three.

 _'I'll be giving the Vindice a personal visit once this is all over.'_

Someone mentioned the rings but he couldn't spare those little trinkets any thought other than a _'Good riddance to bad rubbish.'_ in his angry haze.

Some members of the Varia were there, it seemed like Xanxus didn't come today. Good, good. Had his cousin been here they would be seeing which one of them had better grasp over his Wrath flames- by introducing the flames point-blank to the face-

His angry musings were interrupted by Talbot.

"You're still alive?" he deadpanned.

Talbot merely laughed.

.

Nothing felt more satisfying than firing that XX-Burner at Spade.

And when Spade still stood again afterwards like it didn't matter to him, well, Tsuna kind of… _lost it._

He'll cherish the look on Spade's face when he realized just _what_ kind flame covered the fist that punched him forever.

Also, he his cousin owed him an explanation or five

.

 _*few years later, Inheritance*_

Sawada Tsunayoshi sat on the throne designated for the Inheritance Ceremony- for real, this time- mantle draped over his back, his eyes glowing with his flames and Will as the tenth generation of Vongola swore their allegiance to him; kneeling in front of him and kissing his ring.

Tsuna didn't remember having so much fanfare when the first generation swore allegiance to his cousin much less the second generation.

When it was Xanxus turn, he kneeled and kissed Tsuna's ring. Their eyes met briefly and glimmered slightly as if sharing an inside joke.

Tsuna's lips twitched into a smile as he thought of his immediate plan of action.

 _'First things first, the mantle will have to go. Second, I'll grow my hair out; I miss my hairstyle from_ back then _. Third, I'll make sure to keep my bangs short. Fourth, get the people around to ditch the_ Neo Primo _and start with the_ Decimo _. The faster I break them out of the illusion that I am the second coming of my cousin the better.'_

.

Tsuna was standing in the portrait hall that held the portraits of the previous generations. Except the second generation's portrait and Tsuna wasn't surprised in the least; Spade knew how to hold a grudge, and he held one against Tsuna _back then_ when he prevented Spade from having a foothold in the Vongola after his cousin left; destroying all the positive images the second generation had while smearing their reputation in the ground weren't things Spade would shy away from.

Behind Tsuna stood the Ninth and Tsuna's _father_ ; they came for a visit and were discussing Vongola's history. It was a favored topic since Tsuna insisted on being known as Decimo rather than Neo Primo; and the Ninth and Iemitsu kind of didn't understand why.

Tsuna looked up at the portrait of the first generation; he could feel the Mist flames woven into a certain part in the portrait start to break down after so many years and no one to power it.

"So many things were lost in the telling of history." Tsuna mused, "The only person who knew and was around to share was Deamon Spade. And we know how trustworthy Deamon Spade's word was."

The Mist flames in the portrait faded away in front of the three people watching; two of them were shocked, the third expectant. Deamon Spade's smirking face faded leaving the gentle smiling face of Elena.

"The greatest illusion in Vongola was the one that hid away the true identity of Primo's Mist. It makes you wonder what else was hidden away."

.

 **End**

I… don't know why I decided to end it there but I did. I also wanted to finish this and post it as my first ever KHR fic.

Please leave a review?

Salam,

I.W.P-chan


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